Frank Snepp arrived in Vietnam
in 1969 and stayed on until he was evacuated as
Saigon fell in 1975.
He spent a good deal of time working with the
press while there and developed the ability to
plant stories in major media outlets like the
New York Times, the New Yorker, the LA Times,
Chicago Daily News and others that supported the
Agency's goals.
The younger reporters like the Associated
Press's Peter Arnett wouldn't take the bait.
After he left the CIA he wrote a book, Decent
Interval, that talked about his time in Vietnam.
The CIA made his life hell and took a case all
the way to the Supreme Court where they won a
verdict that required Snepp to turn over all the
money the book had made. That was $300,000.
To Snepp, that decision and the Pentagon Papers
case, where the Supreme Court decided in some
instances the government could impose prior
restraint on the media meant the only victory
the US could show for its war in Vietnam was
undoing the first amendment.
Former CIA Agent John Stockwell Talks about How
the CIA Worked in Vietnam and Elsewhere
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